Hunting and observing scorpions in Arizona.?

Question

My son and I are vacationing in the Sonora Desert near Phoenix, and he is interested in observing arachnid life here (which is evidently quite diverse)-Does anyone know the best method of finding the different species, and what time, area, microhabitat we should look for? Thank you very much

Answer 1

Easy, turn over rocks. They like to hide under there in the daytime. There are plenty of scorpions in the sonoran desert. But I'd recommend not to try to catch any scorpions because a significant number of scorpions you will encounter this way will be bark scorpions - the sting of which is said to be extremely painful. I've been stung by a striped tail scorpion at such an occasion, which wasn't a big deal (better than a bee or wasp sting) but don't think I would want to try to find out how a bark scorpion feels like.
And please put the rocks back like you found them in order not to disturb the habitat too much.
I haven't tried this out there, but it may be fun to try, for some unknown reasons the carapax of scorpions and other arachnids fluoresces green under a blacklight. So if you go out by night with a blacklight you may see some scorpions this way. Also the blacklight will attract a lot of other insects, which will attract scorpions and maybe even solpugids which are really cool critters.
You also could consider a day trip to the desert museum in Tuscon and maybe a visit to SASI (though it's small) if they have anything going on, that's very close to the museum, I put the link in here.

Answer 2

Answered..............